On the way to visit his aunt, 16-year-old Fawzi al-Juneidi was captured by Israeli forces in Hebron. He said he was severely beaten and taken to a nearby military watchtower with blood pouring from his face, placed in an outdoor fenced room and made to sit on the ground in cold water in the December chill. “They poured cold water on my feet, as I had lost my shoes when they arrested me. They were standing on my legs and feet, leaving cuts all over my body,” Juneidi told Al-Monitor within days of his release from 22 days in prison. Juneidi said that as a result of the beatings he endured from the time of his arrest, his shoulder was fractured.

After a day of various transfers between police stations, Juneidi was taken to Ofer, an Israeli prison in the West Bank, where he was finally allowed to access an Israeli hospital. “While I was in the hospital, the soldiers threatened that if I didn’t admit to throwing stones they would beat me up. They continually said bad words to me and cursed me,” Juneidi said.

Walking to his aunt’s house, Juneidi had to cross an area in Hebron where there were clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli forces in the aftermath of US President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem announcement. “Soldiers aren’t out in this area during the day if there are no clashes. But because of the protests they surrounded the area and trapped the youths,” Juneidi said.

The number of child arrests has substantially increased in the month following Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the accountability program director of Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP), told Al-Monitor that between Dec. 6 and Dec. 19, 77 children under the age of 18 had been imprisoned, double the numbers from the previous month.